There was an air of excitement about Mr Bassett as he arrived at the Daily Express offices in London during a visit to the UK and Europe to gather international support for a 20-year mission.

He was clutching a mock-up Daily Express front page he created with the words “We Are Not Alone” over the face of an alien as the top story.

He said: “This will be a reality this year and across the front pages of newspapers across the world. The most significant news story that has ever been broken.”

Mr Bassett is convinced his two decades of work are about to bear fruit.

So why 2016?

A media storm has slowly been brewing on both sides of the Atlantic.

In January, Express.co.uk was among many media outlets that reported on remarks made by Hillary Clinton during the election trail, that she wanted to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery once and for all.

But, in the background before this Camp Clinton had been making other moves.

Twenty-two months after Bill Clinton left office Mr Podesta called for the release of all UFO files to the public on October 22, 2002 at the National Press Club and did the same there a year later.

In 2010 Mr Podesta restated his desire for disclosure in a foreword to the book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record by Leslie Kean.

In February 2015 Mr Podesta tweeted: “My biggest failure of 2014: Once again not securing the “disclosure of the UFO files.”

On September 29 2015 Mr Podesta tweeted about a reporter’s interview with Mrs Clinton, saying: “Ask her about aliens next time! #thetruthisoutthere.”

And in March Express.co.uk exclusively revealed the Clintons’ involvement with influential tycoon Laurance Rockefeller’s “Rockefeller Initiative” in the 1990s, to try to get the truth out and why the couple had never spoken about it since.

Mr Bassett believes Mrs Clinton and Mr Podesta know or strongly suspect aliens are real, and her campaigning on the subject is to make sure she is seen to be at the heart of it when the disclosure comes.

But he is not convinced she will be the president to make the announcement or even make it into office.

Next day, it retracted this, saying it was a damaged weather balloon.

Witnesses later came forward to say there had been alien bodies within the “crashed craft”, which along with wreckage were taken to Area 51.

Mr Bassett said: “After Roswell the truth embargo was put in place under Truman, led by the US, but the UK Government and other countries agreed to it.”

International media organisations also agreed to be bound by it, he believes.

He now firmly believes after Camp Clinton raised the alien issue in mainstream media for several months, the truth embargo is now being breached by US newspapers.

He feels these media outlets would not have touched the story just a few months ago, and the White House will now no longer be able to contain the secret.

Mr Bassett is convinced aliens are real and have engaged with world leaders on Earth, but it has been the globe’s best kept secret.

He said: “The only circumstance under which a leading presidential candidate, her president husband and their common advisor would repeatedly speak to the extraterrestrial phenomena issue during a campaign, is when their collective brain trust is fully aware the extraterrestrial presence is fact.

“This simple exercise in logical deduction confirms why a media tsunami the height of the Washington Monument is heading toward the truth embargo’s beach.

“ET is real, we have got beyond that.

“We are going to get disclosure this year. I am not sure who will win the election, but I think Obama will be the disclosure president.

“He will be looking at a Nobel Prize for making an announcement like that. I am 85 per cent sure Obama will make the announcement before he leaves office and within days your Prime Minister David Cameron will follow.”

Mr Bassett believes that super powers Russia and China and other nations are in on the “truth embargo” swell, and he is puzzled as to why Russian President Vladimir Putin has never sought to reveal the truth to the world as he is not within the “US agenda”.

But Mr Bassett refuted any suggestions he is backing Mrs Clinton for political reasons.

He said: “I am not trying to get Hillary Clinton elected, I just constantly send stuff to her and Mr Podesta.”

Mr Bassett and his supporters have been buoyed by the campaigning of Camp Clinton, as it has led to White House press secretary Josh Earnest facing tough grillings from reportersabout the alien issue at the last two press briefings.

Mr Bassett said: “I am trying to force Obama to make the disclosure. I think we are going to get there.”